Shear Strength Prediction of Reinforced Concrete Deep Beams with Web Openings

Shear Strength Prediction of Reinforced Concrete Deep Beams with Web Openings

This paper presents a new method for predicting the shear strength and failure mechanisms, which include concrete crushing and steel yielding, of reinforced concrete deep beams with web openings. The proposed method is derived from the concept of struts and ties, and also satisfies the equilibrium, compatibility, and constitutive laws of cracked reinforced concrete. The proposed method can accurately predict the following parameters: the ratio of horizontal and vertical reinforcement, the location and size of web openings, concrete strength, the shear span-depth ratio, and flexural steel. The shear strength predictions of the proposed method, the strut-and-tie model of Tan et al., and the empirical formula of Kong and Sharp are compared with the available experimental data. The comparison shows that both the proposed method and the strut-and-tie model of Tan et al. can accurately predict all the parameters under comparison. The empirical formula of Kong and Sharp, on the other hand, cannot satisfactorily predict their behavior.